Jeremiah Valeska
|appearances = 4 episodes (see below) |actor = Cameron Monaghan |Pagename = The Joker }} Jeremiah Valeska is a mentally deranged and dangerous terrorist, criminal and murderer. He is also the more intelligent and more dangerous identical twin brother of the anarchistic cult leader Jerome Valeska. As a child, Jeremiah suffered years of abuse at the hands of his psychopathic brother, who even burnt Jeremiah's bed while Jeremiah himself was in it. In a desperate attempt to defend Jeremiah from his monstrous brother, his uncle took him away from Haly's Circus, in which his mother Lila worked, and proceeded to take him to St. Ignatius. Following this Jeremiah changed his name and started calling himself Xander Wilde. After finishing school, Jeremiah had become a highly intelligent engineer, and since a young age, he used to construct labyrinths and built a hideout of his own to protect himself from his brother, which took almost six years of construction. In addition to the hideout which he filled with security cameras, rooms of work and more, he met a young woman named Ecco who started to work for him as a proxy and assistant. Jeremiah would later reunite with his brother, who after a rampage to find his twin, found him in his hideout. Right after witnessing his brother's death, Jeremiah received a gift which was sent to him by Jerome, which is revealed to be a "special" gas created just for him. Upon inhaling it, his face became pale white and a wide red grin formed from ear to ear, turning Jeremiah into The Joker. Biography Early Life Jeremiah was born to Lila Valeska and Paul Cicero and is the twin brother of Jerome Valeska According to Jeremiah, Jerome would abuse and scare Jeremiah when he was little. Jeremiah would later recount that he realized Jerome was dangerous and knew he needed to get away from him so he snuck away one night from Haly's Circus and had his uncle Zachary place him at St. Ignatius. Shortly afterwards, Jeremiah took on the alias of "Xander Wilde". He himself would later explain that he did this since he wanted to make it more difficult for Jerome to track him down, but Jerome on the other hand stated that he got adopted by rich people, therfore explaining his changed name. He would then study at school and become an engineer. Four years after graduating, he started construction on his hideout, an underground maze bunker in a forest on the outskirts of Gotham City. The building took 6 years to complete. At an unknown point in time, he met a woman named Ecco and hired her as his proxy and assistant. Reunited With Jerome Ten years after Jeremiah's graduation, Jerome breaks out of Arkham Asylum and kills their uncle, Zachary at the diner he owns for the location of his brother. Jeremiah is then confronted by the stunned Captain Jim Gordon and Detective Harvey Bullock. They ask Jeremiah about him and Jerome, he tells them that once Jerome tried to kill him, so he ran away and changed his name to Xander Wilde. They then find out that he‘s holding Jerome captive, so they immediately order Jeremiah to let him go but he refuses to do so. After finding out that the Legion of Horribles is inside the building, and that they hypnotized Ecco, Jeremiah takes Jim and Harvey into the halls of his house, which were built as a maze that he’s the only one he can get out of. The three find Ecco there but, since she was hypnotized by Tetch, she gets into a fight with them, Ecco easily wins and takes Jeremiah to Jerome, but she’s eventually knocked out by Jim. Jeremiah then tries to escape but Jerome finds him. They have a verbal fight, in which Jerome tells he’s disappointed by what Jeremiah told about him, since, in his point of view, all of the things he said were lies. Jeremiah did agree that certain things that he told were in fact exaggerations of the truth. Jerome also tells Jeremiah that he’s going to drive him crazy and then kill him. Jim and Harvey eventually get to them, so Jerome runs away leaving Jeremiah behind. Jeremiah is later taken to the GCPD so that he can be put into protective custody. Jerome took the Mayor, his wife, and a police officer hostage. He demanded that Jim bring him, Jeremiah and Bruce Wayne. Jeremiah is hesitant to go at first but later agrees. Jerome straps Jeremiah and Bruce into a chair. Jerome tells the crowd the story of him and Jeremiah and then cuts Jeremiah free. Determined to prove Jeremiah is just like him, Jerome hands Jeremiah the knife and tells him to take his best shot. Jeremiah tries to stab Jerome, who knocks him out with a single punch. Later, Jeremiah approaches Jerome’s body after he fell to his death. As Jeremiah walks away, Bruce asks him to let Wayne Enterprises fund his work. Jeremiah thanks Bruce and shakes his hand. Driven Insane After Jerome's death, Jeremiah discovered a gift in his secret office and opened it. The gift is revealed to be a jack in the box in the form of a disfigured clown head that sprays Jeremiah with a special mixture of the laughing venom created by Jerome. The gas then eventually drives Jeremiah completely insane as Jerome's voice speaks to him in a recording coming out of the gift box, encouraging Jeremiah to be Jerome's successor and his ultimate revenge. Even though Jeremiah tried to fight the venom, it ultimately turned him into a complete maniac with white skin and red lips, ultimately becoming The Joker. However, Jeremiah claimed that other than the cosmetic changes, the gas did nothing to his sanity: this indicates that Jerome was telling the truth about Jeremiah's mental state, and that he indeed shares his brother’s psychosis. Revealing his dark side Jeremiah created a recording tape of himself disguised as his deceased brother Jerome and stated that he would have a wake at the GCPD. He then set Ecco to invite Jerome fanatics that were celebrating at his grave. When Bruce Wayne visited Jeremiah Valeska, he showed Bruce Wayne the prototype of the device he was working on. He also pulled out Jerome's diary which Arkham gave to him after his death. There he revealed that the book was disturbing and holding him back but Bruce morally supported him by saying to quit the book. Shortly after, Bruce received a phone call about Jerome's wake and Jeremiah became paranoid. Jeremiah confessed that he was sprayed the Insanity Gas as Jerome's last sick game and Bruce convinced Jeremiah to visit Jerome's grave to truly convince the cowering Jeremiah that he was truly dead. After visiting the grave and finding it empty, Jeremiah runs away inside the cemetery building and when Bruce catches up to him, it appears as Jeremiah is losing his mind, now that he views that Bruce is his dead brother. After Jeremiah chases Bruce towards Jerome's Graveyard, Jerome's body is now placed next to the tombstone. Still not buying the fact that his brother is dead, he pulled out a knife from Jerome's corpse and fought Bruce Wayne. Jim Gordon investigates he bunker and a recording starts playing. when Ecco arrived and placed a gun at his head, the recording starts and it looked like Jerome had an extra tape regarding Jim Gordon. After an extensive fight with Ecco, it is revealed to Gordon that Jeremiah was faking the Jerome act as he peels off the fake damaged skin and rubs the makeup off with a cloth. Meanwhile, Jeremiah reveals his true colors to Bruce by confessing that the whole event was just an act and Jeremiah was insane the whole time. After a thug proclaims proudly "Jerome's victorious" Jeremiah murders him in cold blood due to him believing that he was the victorious one and not his brother since he was dead. He then revealed his plans for Gotham as he pulled out the diary and stated he was going to complete his brother’s wishes in a sane matter. Bruce disregarded his plan by saying its complete madness and then he states that he wouldnt go as extreme and brutal as his brother but rather get things done straight to the point like he said "Jerome wanted to place honey on you and set bees/ wasps to eat you alive, i would just shoot you in the head". He then reveals to Bruce that the generators Bruce invested his money in were going to be used as bombs rather than electricity resource. Back at Jermiah's residence the bunker's generator starts a timer for an explosion, but luckily Jim finds a secret buzzer underneath the table and unlocks the door and escapes the bunker. as the bunker explodes. Jeremiah presumes Jim has died and passes on that information the Bruce, where Bruce angrily vows that he will stop Jeremiah. Jeremiah and Ecco then head to Wayne Enterprise and kill two guards to obtain their keycards. they open the locked door with the key cards and it is revealed that there is a room full of the powerful generators Jeremiah created and Bruce invested in. He then orders Ecco to move them as he plans to destroy Gotham and "Rebuild it" Personality Though he appeared to be more stable then his brother, Jerome claimed that Jeremiah was as crazy as he was. He was shown to be deceptive, as he claimed that Jerome was threatening to kill him, though he later admitted to Jerome that it didn't happen exactly as he had described it. He also tried to deceive Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock that Jerome could not find him, even though he had captured Jerome at this point. He was overconfident, bordering on arrogance, on being able to keep his brother trapped, something that led to Jeremiah escaping him. He was also willing to let people die if it meant he could avoid Jerome, showing that he was selfish to a degree. After being exposed to Jerome's altered laughing toxin, Jeremiah was driven completely insane, laughing uncontrollably as he was transformed by the toxin. However, according to Jeremiah, his brother’s gas did little more than alter him cosmetically, indicating that he was truly psychopathic all along. Since this event, he has shown traits quite similar to his brother, showing ruthlessness as he executed one of Jerome's followers for pronouncing Jerome to be victorious. He also showed arrogance, as he believed he was complete Jerome's plans in a "sane" manner. Jeremiah has still shown himself to be highly deceptive, as he was able to act as Jerome on video tapes of his "will", only dropping the act to illustrate his new sinister personality. Jeremiah has also shown to be calm at all times, even when he is furious an speaking in a monotonous tone for the most part. Abilities *'High-level intellect:' Jeremiah is shown to be highly intelligent. Since he was a child, he used to draw mazes, and when he grew up, after having the best grades at school, he built one in his house, which he built underneath the woods. Furthermore, he is extremely manipulative as he pretends that he is sane or that he is Jerome through the use of makeup. *'Master tactician:' Using his vast intelligence, Jeremiah also filled his secret hideout with security cameras in order to be ready for his twisted brother's arrival, whilst also utilizing the right tactics in order to trap and escape Jerome. *'Evasion:' While not overly skilled in it, Jeremiah has a degree of skill in evasion, as he was able to evade his brother for years. *'Master engineer:' After graduating school, Jeremiah used his construction skills of labyrinths in order to build a secretive hideout for himself in order to defend himself from Jerome, which took him six years of construction. *'Impersonation/Acting:' He was able to impersonate his brother Jerome in multiple video recordings, making him a very talented actor, even capable of fooling the whole GCPD and the Cult of Jerome with his disguise. *'Make-up artist:' Jeremiah is shown to be a skilled make-up artist on many occasions. After his skin was bleached white, Jeremiah was able to use make-up to hide his transformation from the public for weeks. He was even capable of taking on the appearance of his brother Jerome by the use of prosthetic make-up for the scars. *'Voice alteration:' Jeremiah was able to change his voice to make himself sound like someone else. It was shown that he can convincingly imitate the voice of his brother Jerome, a very difficult task, since Jerome got his striking voice because he got stabbed in the throat before his first death, disfiguring his vocal cords permanently after his resurrection. Weakness *'Arrogance:' Jeremiah believed that he had captured Jerome and could keep him imprisoned. When Jim and Bullock attempted to put him in protective custody, Jeremiah firmly believed he had defeated Jerome. Only for Jerome to outmaneuver him by leading his allies to Jeremiah's location, hypnotizing his bodyguard, and revealing that he memorized the labyrinths that Jeremiah designed as a child. *'Jerome:' Jeremiah's greatest weakness is Jerome, his own twin brother. Since a young age Jeremiah suffered from Jerome's twisted and sadistic personality this led to Jeremiah suffering at the hands of Jerome who tormented him violently and sadistically, at one point during this period Jerome even set fire to Jeremiah's bed while he was still in it. Jerome also wished to have Jeremiah carry on his legacy by spraying him with a “special gas” that could drive him insane. However, the gas merely changed Jeremiah’s face and did not have any effect on his true deranged mentality. Equipment * Guns/Firearms: * Straight Razor: Appearances Season 4 * * * * Trivia *The Joker made his first appearence in Batman #1 (April 25, 1940). The original character was created by Jerry Robinson, Bob Kane, and Bill Finger and first appeared in Batman #1. *This is the third live-action version of the Joker to appear on television and the sixth live-action version overall(excluding the various actors involved in various commercials involving the Joker such as the recent Snickers ad campaign), with the first being in the 1966 live-action TV series Batman played by Cesar Romero, the second in the 1989 live-action movie played by Jack Nicholson, the third in the 2002 live-action TV series Birds of Prey played by Roger Stoneburner and voiced over by Mark Hamill, the fourth in the 2008 live-action movie The Dark Knight played by Heath Ledger and the fifth being in the 2016 live-action movie Suicide Squad played by Jared Leto. *Jeremiah Valeska is heavily based on the original Joker from the Golden Age of Comic Books as well as the Joker from Frank Miller's 1986 Batman: The Dark Knight Returns storyline, where the character was potrayed as much more cold and calculating while also lacking damaged face muscles and nerves that make him look like he was smiling all times. *Like the Joker from Batman: The Animated Series from 1992, Jeremiah Valeska's hair appears in a very dark green tone, almost seeming black in certain light conditions. *Jeremiah's outfit with the purple hat and coat is an allusion to clothes the Joker wore in in the comics on multiple occasions, most famous in Batman: The Killing Joke and Batman: No Man's Land, as well as the 1989 live-action movie Batman. *When Jeremiah is going insane, he clutches his head in a way that mirrors the famous panel of The Joker going insane in Batman: The Killing Joke. *Xander's assumed surname could be a reference to the wild and unpredictable nature of the Joker. It could specifically be a reference to an episode of Batman: The Animated Series called "Joker’s Wilde". *Jeremiah and Jerome share the same facial features apart from Jeremiah's hair being dark brown, with Jerome's being red, and Jeremiah wearing glasses. *It appears that Jeremiah dyes his hair green instead of it being chemically changed, similar to Heath Ledger's Joker. *It is possible that Jeremiah's stories about Jerome's being a psychopath as a child, is fictional and purely a ploy to get sympathy from those around him. Notes *It is highly assumed that Jeremiah will be the cause of Ra's al Ghul's vision of The Fall of Gotham in the near future. *Jeremiah is Gotham's version of the Joker. *Jeremiah stated that being sprayed with Jerome's special laughing gas caused no change in his mentality, indicating that he was insane before he was sprayed, just brought his insanity to the forefront of his mentality. The gas simply changed Jeremiah's facial appearance. References Category:Allusions to the comics Category:Antagonists Category:Former protagonists